Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many chemical weapon attacks took place in Syria under Bashar al-Assad's rule.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
Independent international investigations mandated by the UN Security Council and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have confirmed that the Assad regime used chemical weapons at least nine times against its own people after Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013, including chlorine and sarin nerve agent.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what provision will be made for wounded children with no surviving family in Gaza who require urgent medical care to be brought to the United Kingdom for medical treatment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working urgently to get some of the critically ill and injured children medically evacuated from Gaza. The first patients are expected to arrive in the United Kingdom in the coming weeks.
Children will only be transferred to the UK where it is clinically safe to do so and in the interests of each individual patient and where there is capacity within the National Health Service to treat them. They will be accompanied by their immediate family which means their parents, and siblings aged under 18 years old. Where both parents are deceased, they must be accompanied by a legal guardian. We will not be evacuating unaccompanied children.
It is too early to say how long this process will run for and thus the number of children we expect to be evacuated.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many wounded children from Gaza they will bring to the United Kingdom for medical treatment; and whether they plan to increase this number.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working urgently to get some of the critically ill and injured children medically evacuated from Gaza. The first patients are expected to arrive in the United Kingdom in the coming weeks.
Children will only be transferred to the UK where it is clinically safe to do so and in the interests of each individual patient and where there is capacity within the National Health Service to treat them. They will be accompanied by their immediate family which means their parents, and siblings aged under 18 years old. Where both parents are deceased, they must be accompanied by a legal guardian. We will not be evacuating unaccompanied children.
It is too early to say how long this process will run for and thus the number of children we expect to be evacuated.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to accelerate the process to bring wounded children from Gaza to the United Kingdom.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working urgently to get some of the critically ill and injured children medically evacuated from Gaza. The first patients are expected to arrive in the United Kingdom in the coming weeks.
Children will only be transferred to the UK where it is clinically safe to do so and in the interests of each individual patient and where there is capacity within the National Health Service to treat them. They will be accompanied by their immediate family which means their parents, and siblings aged under 18 years old. Where both parents are deceased, they must be accompanied by a legal guardian. We will not be evacuating unaccompanied children.
It is too early to say how long this process will run for and thus the number of children we expect to be evacuated.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of churches in the West Bank that have been attacked in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As the Foreign Secretary has made clear, the war in Gaza must end. We are concerned by incidents and strikes on holy sites across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including most recently the Holy Family Church in Gaza being struck on 17 July and reports of attacks by violent settlers on Christian communities in the West Bank. Last week His Majesty's Consul General to Jerusalem visited Taybeh in the West Bank with church leaders and international partners to express solidarity with the local community following attacks by settlers on their community. My officials continue to meet with Church leaders in Jerusalem and carefully monitor reports impacting religious sites and freedom of religion or belief in Gaza and the West Bank. The UK is strongly committed to freedom of religion or belief for all.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of churches in Gaza that have been attacked in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As the Foreign Secretary has made clear, the war in Gaza must end. We are concerned by incidents and strikes on holy sites across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including most recently the Holy Family Church in Gaza being struck on 17 July and reports of attacks by violent settlers on Christian communities in the West Bank. Last week His Majesty's Consul General to Jerusalem visited Taybeh in the West Bank with church leaders and international partners to express solidarity with the local community following attacks by settlers on their community. My officials continue to meet with Church leaders in Jerusalem and carefully monitor reports impacting religious sites and freedom of religion or belief in Gaza and the West Bank. The UK is strongly committed to freedom of religion or belief for all.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact and allocation of the funds budgeted to support those who lose their jobs as a result of the transformation of Port Talbot.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Tata Steel/Port Talbot Transition Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Wales, supports those affected by Tata Steel UK’s decarbonisation transition and is supported by £100 million of funding. £80 million of which is provided by the UK Government, as confirmed by the Chancellor in the Budget on 30 October, and the remaining £20 million is provided by Tata Steel UK. The joint investment by UK Government and Tata Steel UK of £1.3 billion in an Electric Arc Furnace at Port Talbot has helped to protect 5,000 jobs and many more within the supply chain.
The Transition Board, in under a year, allocated the full UK Government £80 million funding to help those people and businesses affected by the transition, and to regenerate the local area. The UK Government Funds have created:
The Transition Board receives updates on the impact of the funds at every Board meeting, containing data provided by delivery partners, such as Neath Port Talbot Council and Business Wales. The Transition Board last met on 26 June, and the following progress was reported up until that date:
Funding for growth and regeneration projects in Port Talbot have also been funded by the Transition Board:
The growth and regeneration projects will also create construction jobs during the building, refurbishment and remediation phases.